Peace

After the last few days of limbo, I have found a semblance of peace over this basketball situation. I don't mind that the coach left for another school. I am happy for the good times we had the last several seasons. Had he simply just left though I would have remembered him for the great times and as a good coach. However, it seems like he strung the boosters and the school along in order to contact his recruits before he officially took the new job and barred from contacting them and used these same players as leverage to convince us to let him pick his replacement. Now instead of being thought of as the savior of the program, he's shown himself to be someone who cares very little of how he's thought of in the city. It remains to be seen as to where we go from here. I have certain coaches I'd like to see hired, and there are coaches that I would loathe to see fill the position. We'll also see how the players situation plays out. I don't want to see this program fade into mediocrity, but it is time for the administration to step up in a big way if they want the continued support of the avid fans. For now, I'm going to keep up with the news, but what's done is done.

College Basketball

This post is going to be more of a rant about the state of Tigers basketball and Tigers sports in general, so feel free to skip it if it doesn't interest you.

The shitstorm that has been stirred up in the last few days has been epic. It started with the coach publicly stating that there is no way he's leaving the university for a more prominent program. Then, over the weekend, rumors started that he had in fact flown to said school to discuss terms with the officials there. Our AD came out and said the rumors were untrue and he never gave the other school permission to speak to our coach. On Monday, our AD states on record that he's given permission for the other school to speak to our coach.

I understand that this is the way of college athletics. If you are a good coach, you will be courted by every school under the sun. I also fully understand that $6 million is a lot of money and even though you are already a millionaire, it's a huge raise. That being said, there is a classy way to go about contract negotiations. The basketball program has once again reached the level of national recognition, and the coach had a lot to do with it. Do I think he's going to stay forever? Well, no, I'm not that naive. Had I found out yesterday that he was leaving, I would've wished him the best of luck, even though I was sick to my stomach over it.

However, in the wake of the negotiations with the other school, it came out that he was likely going to take not only the incoming recruits, but he was also working on getting releases for current players so they could all follow him to the new school. If you want to leave our program for a new one because it is better for you and your family, that's fine. It is however very classless to gut our program in the process. I understand that with any coaching change that some players decide to leave and go elsewhere. That's fine. If they don't want to play here, again, I wish them well. However, if you are using the current players as a threat to get your way, then that's lower than low. I don't care if it's done elsewhere. The behavior is wrong, and it shouldn't be something that's condoned, and if our AD even considers releasing the players to leave with the coach, he needs to get his head examined. We may as well just dismantle the entire program right now.

The negotiations are still ongoing. The big boosters have gotten together to negotiate the deal. While I applaud their efforts, this brings me to another issue I have. Last spring and fall, there was a huge fan initiative to get the university to build a football stadium on campus. Many donors were willing to give to see this happen. We were all told that there was no way $10 million could be raised over the course of a few years to fund this. Last night, 3 big donors got together and raised that amount to try to keep the coach. Now, I understand that our football program is not anywhere close to where it needs to be, but I'm sorry, football will more likely get us into a BCS league before basketball.

That all being said, Jeremy and I have come to a hard decision. We want to support Tigers athletics, but in these tough economic times, we really have to examine closely where our money goes. While I love the players and I do believe they go out and try their hardest, I have never been a huge basketball fan. These latest events surrounding the program have left a bad taste in my mouth and while I want the university to succeed and athletics to do well, we have to decide how best to use our money. I would like to keep our season tickets to basketball, and with a coaching change, that may not be too hard. However, we're thinking about minimizing our scholarship fund donations. Because he's just graduated, the university will match, so there's no reason to donate as much. Instead, the money we would've been donating to the general scholarship fund, we'll turn around and donate directly to the football program. I would like nothing more than to mail in a check each month designating the money specifically to football with a note saying that I am no longer supporting any other programs until the administration gets its but in gear.

It's Over

The title very neatly describes the events in my life recently that has culminated in a sigh of relief and a splitting headache.

My brother's visit ended Saturday, and to say I'm a little sad to see him go is understating it a bit. While I'm sure he felt the week was slightly underwhelming in the form of entertainment, it was more activity that either me or Jeremy are used to on school nights. Yes, we are old and boring, but hopefully we managed to not totally ruin his vacation. As Jeremy put it, his visit gave us another person to stare at. After we took him to the airport Saturday morning, Jeremy and I came home and absolutely crashed. I spent the better part of 2 days napping on the couch, trying fitfully to sleep through a migraine.

Another activity I am happy to say is at an end is unpacking. Yes, we are officially finished with the chaos that was box killing. Now, cleaning and laundry are unending tasks in my life, but at least, I no longer have to spend hours trying to find new places for things that seem to have homes in our old apartment. Which brings me to question that I've been pondering. Our apartment in Memphis was a 2BR apartment. Our current apartment is a 2BR. Somehow, we seem to have less room here even though the square footage here is larger. We had even gotten rid of a lot of furniture before we moved. I fully believe that there was a worm hole in one of our former closets that allowed for the storage and retrieval of little used items.

College basketball also ended this weekend, much to our dismay. We had hoped to travel to Detroit to watch the Final Four, but alas that was not meant to be. This leaves us fans also in limbo as to whether our coach will return next year. I hope that this current hoopla is his way of negotiating a better contract, but I am not holding out too much hope. Very disappointing.

Life is Good

Our friends in Memphis just welcomed their new baby girl into the world today. Congrats to them! We can't wait to meet her, but she'll be almost a year old by the time we see her.

Last night, Jeremy and I officially finished cleaning our apartment. It was actually easier than I had imagined even though it seemed a daunting task. I guess the marathon cleaning that we'd embarked on all month paid off. A little vacuuming tonight will finish everything off. We can't wait until my brother gets here tomorrow. This will be the first visitor we've had since we officially moved in.

The weather here is beautiful, and Spring seems to be officially here even though it's going to be a little chilly this weekend. I really needed the sun to come out. It has been very uplifting.

Tigers play their first NCAA game today. I can't listen to it today because of a meeting, but I hope they play well. Go Tigers!

Future

This weekend is going to be a busy one, with lots of fun and lots of work. Tomorrow, we have an action packed day. I've been looking forward to every minute of it all week. We're headed off to Ikea again to finally purchase the bed for the office/guest room. We've finally gotten the room cleared out enough to actually get the last piece of furniture. There are still little bits and pieces of things that I haven't figured out where to put, but overall, the room is done.

We've been working really hard on finishing the room because we're hoping to have various guests come over in the coming months. My brother who was going to visit in February will likely come visit us for a week in March. That is provided he doesn't get the job he wants. Either way, he'll probably be applying for grad school at CMU, so he may be spending some time with us before it's all said and done.

Jeremy's mom and stepdad may also come and visit us in the spring, so it'll be nice not to have to rush and clean for them. After this weekend, if they were to just drop by, I won't have a heart attack/panic attack.

After Ikea, we'll come home and watch the Tigers basketball game. They're in Hattiesburg this weekend, and the game should be fun and loud. It'll be a good Valentines Day activity. After the game, we'll go eat dinner and then go ice skating. I'm looking forward to the entire event.

Sunday should be a nice, relaxing day with nothing much to do. Regular chores like laundry and finishing the office are all that's on the list. It'll be a nice change of pace.

1 of 2

The Tigers' basketball team beat UCF in an ugly game. An undefeated CUSA run is still possible. They came out and played really sluggishly though, and they really need to focus and get it together.

The Carolina Panthers on the other hand choked against the Arizona Cardinals. It was so bad that I couldn't even stand to watch anymore.

Unbelievable

Today, Memphis played football on ESPN2 and basketball on ESPN. We played two Big East teams. While we figured we would lose to USF in football, we also lost to Syracuse in basketball. I'm at a loss for words right now.

DC Day 1 & 2

Jeremy and I left Pittsburgh early and got into DC around dinner time. We got to have dinner with his dad and stepmom, and it was great. We had a good time catching up, and they treated us to very good food. After we ate, we came back and exchanged Christmas presents early. We got this beautiful blue and white fleece throw that had a tiger head and our names embroidered on it. It will be great to snuggle under during the winter as we watch the Tigers on TV.

Today, we got up early and checked out the International Spy Museum. We had been before, but some of the exhibits had changed a little, and we really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we headed over to watch Memphis play Georgetown. It was a very disappointing loss because it wasn't so much that we got beat, but we gave the game away. As much as I hate to say it, it really seems that Evans is a bit overrated and not a good college player.

Although the game was disappointing, we got to enjoy DC in the evening. We went to the National Mall and saw some monuments in lights. We got several really good pictures. We were going to go on a carriage ride, but the carriage person was more than 30 minutes late, and we hadn't eaten (his dad and stepmom hadn't eaten since breakfast). Although we couldn't do that, we did eat at a great burger place. Now, with our tummies full and our legs tired, we're in our room watching Batman vs. Dracula on Cartoon Network.

Washington DC

Jeremy and I are headed to DC to watch Memphis play Georgetown. We're really excited because this might be the only game we get to see the Tigers play in person. Jeremy's dad and stepmom arrived safely yesterday, and we're hoping to meet them for dinner tonight. Of course, if they have other plans, I'm okay in us going out to eat by ourselves.

We're not going to have a lot of time there to explore and sightsee, but it should be a fun trip. It doesn't look like they'll be a lot of snowy weather, so we've really lucked out. It's a little icy here, but it should clear up by the time we get ready to leave.

This roadtrip will be an easy 4 hour drive. We haven't had one of these short trips in awhile. If we do go home for the holidays, it'll be a 12 hour drive home. We'll see what happens though as Jeremy waits to hear back about a job interview.

Fans

Lately, I've been really irritated with not only the coaches of both Tiger football and Tiger basketball, but I've also been pissed at the fan base. While I don't believe that my teams will go through the season undefeated, I do feel like the last games that were lost were due to the stubbornness of the coaches rather then the superior gamesmanship of the other team. Relying on a QB that hasn't thrown a pass in a month due to injury isn't fair to him or the rest of the team. Playing a freshman shooting guard, even a highly touted one, the majority of the game when he can't hit a shot while pulling out players who are making shots because they make one defensive mistake is maddening to everyone. However, they are honestly good coaches and genuinely care about their players, so I'm not ready to jump on them to be fired.

The fans on the other hand I'm completely unwilling to cut any slack on. While I was disappointed in both losses, I realize that the world doesn't end. We are bowl eligible because we won 6 games. We qualify, and it doesn't matter that we only won half our games on a shitty schedule. It's money for the school. If we get invited to a bowl whose payout is $750,000, why would we not go? If the fanbase thinks it's too embarrassing to go to a bowl game, then they need to come up with the money to offset the loss. Forcing the football team to pick a lesser paying bowl bid because it doesn't conflict with a basketball game is unfair to the football players and the program. Come on. Who cares?! It's $750k!

I just hope tonight's game will play out better than last weeks. /rant

Exploring

Jeremy and I ventured downtown today for lunch. It was nice to get out, and I did manage to actually keep down a meal for the first time in 3 days. It also completely worn me out though since I came home and slept for almost 3 hours.

I did miss the first 3 quarters of the Memphis vs. Tulane football game. Apparently it was a very good game. They won the game very decisively, and I'm happy that we're bowl eligible again.

Disappointment

The football game yesterday was very disappointing. I've followed the Tigers through the great DeAngelo seasons and through the horrible 2-10 seasons. However, if we had pulled out this game, we had the opportunity to win our division. A lot of people are blaming the coach for not preparing for the game, and I have a lot of the same issues. For the last month, we've been hoping to get back our starting quarterback. However, even without him, we've managed to put together good games and win. Granted, the opponents weren't exactly top notch, but we ran creative plays that were definitely not obvious to the casual observer. Now that we have our quarterback healthy, we are running the old plays that are so slow in developing that I can tell exactly what plays are called. It's frustrating also that our fourth string quarterback can get the plays called faster than our first string quarterback. While our backup quarterback was playing, even when he hadn't taken any snaps at practice, the coaches did not have to call a single time out because he didn't know what play to run. Yesterday, we took a time out and had a delay of game because our quarterback couldn't get the play called to the line. I can understand being rusty throwing and running the ball because of a month of no practices. However, in that time, at least you can study the plays and figure out what the coaches are calling from the sideline. Our offense doesn't really consist of all that many different looks.

I am so much more of a football fan than I am a basketball fan, but I am not enjoying watching Tigers football this year. I love the players and the coach, but it's getting ridiculous. We have the talent, and we have the schedule in our favor, but this year, I've found myself waiting for basketball instead of enjoying football.

Update: So to add to the disappointment, the basketball team lost to Xavier tonight. *sigh*

Bright

I am surprised as to how bright and sunny it is here. In Missouri when it snowed, it would be overcast and dreary. Here however, despite the snow, it hasn't been overcast at all. If this lasts all winter, it would go a long way in preventing the blues.

The Tigers play Seton Hall tonight in the semi-finals. Unbelievably, USC lost last night. People are saying because USC played Tuesday and then took a commercial flight down to Puerto Rico while we played Monday/Tuesday and then took a charter flight. While I wanted to see us play USC to see how we measure up, we haven't been playing spectacularly, and I'd rather not lose. I cannot wait for Camp Cal and all the big games about to come up.

Excited

I am absolutely dying here at work today, and I can't imagine how I would be like if I were in Memphis. Today starts ESPN's 24 hours of college basketball, and Memphis plays UMass tonight at midnight. I really want to stay up and watch the game. On the other hand, that would mean staying up until 3 am, and it's usually not possible for me to stay up until even midnight. I am going to give it a try.

On top of all this, it is now less than a month until the Georgetown game, and we finished booking our hotel and bought the tickets. We're going to drive since it's a 4 hour drive but an 8 hour train ride. Hopefully, we can leave right after work Friday and get there not too late.

It started snowing today. Nothing is sticking yet, but that in itself is contributing to the general excitement of the day. This needs to wear off soon as it's likely to snow a lot this winter, and I cannot get this jacked up at every snowfall. Also, it's likely that I'll be so sick of the cold before the winter is over, but I'm not anticipating that.

Thanksgiving is also about a week away. While I had hoped that Jeremy find a job before the holidays, it will likely be December before he formally starts a job. That's fine. We're staying here for Thanksgiving, and we've decided on eating ourselves silly the entire day. I want to have the food done and out shortly after noon so we can start eating and watching football. I don't plan on moving much other than between the couch and the dining room table.

I hadn't meant for this post to ramble on, but I am apparently looking forward to a lot of stuff.

Bond, James Bond

The new bond movie was good, but it wasn't great. The plot seemed a little weak, but the action scenes were great. The entire experience though was fun. Jeremy and I walked to dinner and then had dessert at the theater.

Today, we're just spending a lazy day at home before the Tigers play Fairfield. I spent a little time at work doing minipreps. While I was there, Jeremy spent some time at the local library. I didn't get a chance to meet him there before the meter ran out, but it's close enough to work that I might go after work on day next week.

Score!

My PCR reactions worked yesterday! I got a band on a gel at the right size, so TA cloning here I come! I'll get really excited when the cloning actually works since I suck at cloning. This cloning kit though requires only a 5 minute ligation step, and other people in the lab have gotten 100% efficiency with it. Hopefully it'll work that well for me. We will know tomorrow if I get colonies and next week when I do minipreps. I know everyone was just fascinated by the science above. =)

Life-wise, Jeremy and I are going to try to extend our evening walks a little longer. Using his iPhone as a GPS tracker, we determined that we've been walking about 1.5 miles a night. It's not a great distance, but we're trying to incorporate this into our daily routine. We want to start running on the trails, but we've decided to take it slowly to start.

We also decided today that we're definitely going to the Memphis vs. Georgetown game in DC next month. I am beyond excited because it'll likely be the only game we see all year. Jeremy's dad and step-mom are going to come up and join us for the game. They're going to drive it from Memphis. I cannot even imagine. We will make a weekend of it though, so it'll be fun.

Finally Settled

After about 6 weeks in Pittsburgh, we are finally settled into our apartment. We still have a few boxes of things that belong in the dining room, we can't unpack them until we actually purchase some dining room furniture. That we won't get until close to Christmas or when Jeremy gets a job. For the most part though, we're completely unpacked.

Jeremy, being the wonderful person that he is, once again humored me and moved the entertainment center to where I had wanted it originally. I really like it a lot better where it is now because it makes our living room/dining room area a lot more spacious. He's not sure he likes it where it is now, but he's willing to give it a week to see. I hope he likes it because I think when we get the dining room furniture, it will look better on that side of the room.

It is definitely nice to have things finally in the places they go. Now, we can finally settle into an every day routine. We won't have to worry daily about what else we need to do or which boxes we need to unpack.

Oh, and the Tigers beat SMU yesterday!

First Game of the Season

Tonight is the first Tiger basketball game of the season, and it is a bittersweet and exciting. Like Midnight Madness, I will miss being in attendance. However, it is just an exhibition game against Christian Brothers University. They usually play us close in the first half, but the Tigers pull away in the second because of our deeper bench. We haven't figured out all of the logistics for the basketball tickets though. Hopefully someone will take tonight's game and we'll work out the others in the next couple of days.

Since we're just nice people and we're buying the tickets to keep up our donation level, we weren't planning to sell the tickets at face value. If we aren't able to attend the bigger games, we may put those online and see what we get for them. That alone may make up the difference between what our friends pay us and what we paid for the tickets.

We are hoping to make it to the Georgetown game in DC though. That should be fun. It may also be the only game we attend all season unless we make it to the Final Four again. If we do, I think we'll have to make a trip to Detroit.

Football Weekend

The Tigers won yesterday in a spectacular fashion. It was a nail-biter until the end, but we managed to win. I was less than optimistic at the beginning of the game seeing as how we were down to our 3rd and 4th string quarterbacks, but they played great. It's a good thing we get a bye week next week seeing as how now we're down to just our 3rd string and maybe a few receivers turned quarterbacks. The direct snap to the running back seemed to work well so maybe he'll play a couple of snaps as QB as well. Thank goodness the rest of our schedule will be relatively easy, and we may pull out a winning season yet.

I'm not as invested in the NFL this year. Last year I would watch the Patriots games, but I'm less interested this year. They did manage to beat the Rams though. We would watch the Panthers games since DeAngelo is playing great this year, but that game is always preempted by a "regional" game.

Other than football, we did manage to get some things done around the apartment. We realized that the pot rack won't hang where we had wanted it, so it's back to the drawing board. I am determined to move the entertainment center again, although Jeremy might just kill me. We did get all our winter clothes unpacked though which I think is a huge accomplishment although I still have to pack up all the summer clothes. Oh well, I'm taking things a little at a time.

Busy Saturday

This morning we got slept in but we managed to get a whole bunch done. We went to Ikea to return some things we bought a couple of weeks ago. We also ate lunch there. It brought back some bittersweet memories of my grandmother because we ate at Ikea the last time we visited her.

We're about to watch the Tigers play their homecoming game. It's the first homecoming game I've missed since 2002. They're supposed to do a tribute to TOMII tonight as well. They probably won't show that on TV. I hope we manage to beat Southern Miss even though we're on our third string quarterback.